1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of change management. More specifically, the invention relates to scalable, distributed monitoring and remediation of heterogeneous objects and devices.
2. Background Information
With the proliferation of networked devices such as computers, digital assistants, wireless phones and so forth, and the ubiquitous access afforded to these devices by networks such as the Internet, even the most protected data can be vulnerable to harm. Whether the harm is due to damage caused by a virus, an unauthorized access, or simply due to natural occurrences such as exposure to the elements, the importance of data integrity and security monitoring cannot be overstated.
Conventional integrity and security monitoring systems focus on the monitoring of state changes within homogenous devices or nodes. That is, conventional monitoring systems are capable of interfacing (and by extension) monitoring only similarly formed devices. For example, a typical monitoring application provided by a router manufacturer may only be capable of monitoring one or more of a family of router products produced by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, these prior art systems do not address monitoring state changes within a large number of heterogeneous devices typically encountered in today's networks.